1) How Context-Free Bullshit Spreads Online: The Case of The Veiled Woman on the Swedish Billboard.

So, the town of Gävle put this image up showing a local resident. The sign says "Welcome to Gävle" with the woman's name underneath. Because the woman is veiled, some were angry.

2) Of course, the implicit suggestion in many of the articles and tweets was that this woman was somehow selected to be the lone representative for the town of Gävle. That this was THE image to represent the city. Well...that's not quite the case.

3) The woman selected was one of 100 city residents, nominated by fellow residents, to represent the town to the outside world. Images of different people were all over town, and the billboard in question outside the town was digital, and showed a different person every week.

4) Here is the website with the 100 people selected to represent Gävle, a town which has seen a lot of immigration. I had a quick look, and of the 100 people on the list (again, nominated by residents), 4 are women who wear a hijab. gavle.se/gilla-gavle/fo…

5) Let's get back to the woman on the billboard. Why was she nominated by her fellow townspeople to represent Gävle? It turns out that she's a teacher who has worked at a number of schools, and, despite battling cancer, has continued her work with kids.

6) "Despite her cancer, she has always fought for kids at her school. She always tries to have a smile on her face & never gives up (...) Most students and teachers in town know her, and have nice things to say about her. That's why she deserves to be Gävle resident of the year."

7) So, what bothered people about the ad was simply that the woman wears a hijab. Why she was nominated was irrelevant. That fact that she is a well-liked teacher who battled cancer? Doesn't fit the narrative. Neither does the fact that she was nominated by fellow townspeople.

8) Also doesn't fit the "Islamification of Sweden" narrative that, of the 100 people selected to represent Gävle in this campaign, just 4 were veiled women (I know, I checked). Of course, when you can't speak Swedish, or don't want to mess up your narrative, that stuff slides by.

9) Story also presented that teacher had links to radicalism. The link? She gave an interview in 2009 about the opening of a new mosque in Gävle. 6 years later the imam of that mosque accused of radicalism. Is she still a mosque member? Does she share his views? Never discussed.

10) So, once again on social media, a grain of truth -- a woman with a hijab is selected to represent Gävle -- is exploded into de-contextualized, fact-free nonsense.

11) As a late, sad, predictable conclusion...after the story of the billboard with the image of the woman spread, the digital billboard was vandalized on several occasions over the last weekend to the point where it stopped working.

This pic, used by Swedish Sports Confederation, was removed after criticism that it supported the veiling of young girls, and that, to some, showing a veiled girl with a gun was linked to terrorism. Pic taken at sports day where kids were allowed to test different activities.

One of the people who criticized the picture, the Chair of the Swedish Swimming Federation, said that the picture, encouraged "honor oppression: genital mutilation, child marriage and honor violence." Today, she resigned because of those comments.

A comment from a former member of the committee responsible for Stockholm's Olympic bid: "If you ignore the little light-haired boy in the background, and he looked like I did when I was small, you would think that this is a recruiting ad for a militant organization." A disgrace.

Swedish locality of Staffanstorp - run by Moderate/Sweden Democrat coalition - decides that students in schools who do not eat pork won't be provided with a meat alternative as vegetarian is offered. This seen a sending message that Muslims not welcome, which local govt denies.

Moderate-SD authority in Staffanstorp now arguing that this is about "economics," but in their platform they clearly state that "cultural characteristics" (such as halal meat) should not be accommodated by local government. So, it's about laying down cultural markers.

There are similar cases in Europe where pork became a symbol of national identity. As I wrote in the @WashingtonPost last year, it's never really about the food (if pork were removed from school menus, and no-one was told, would parents even notice?). It's manufactured outrage.

1) American Patriot newspaper (1852) echos current smears of Muslims/Latinos: "Disgorging themselves upon us, at the rate of Hundreds of Thousands Every Year! They aim at nothing short of conquest and supremacy over us." Who were they writing about? Catholic immigrants. History.

2) Striking similarity between how American Patriot newspaper wanted to treat Irish/Italians in 1852 & current immigration rhetoric:
*deport poor/criminal immigrants
*ban them from voting for 21yrs
*protect US workers from Catholic labor
*no tax money to poor Catholic immigrants

3) In 1852 picture new Catholic immigrants to US carrying carry signs:

"We Are Bound to Carry Out the Pious Intentions of His Holiness the Pope"

"Americans Shant Rule Us!"

Allegiance to strange religion & refusal to adhere to US law and values. What's now said about Muslims.

Starting Sept.2017 @LasAmericasIAC starts reporting parent/children separation, despite legal documents showing relation. There was little I, as a journalist, could do when both parent & child were out of reach for interview & @ICEgov wasn’t talking. cbs4local.com/news/local/exp…

A quick review of TfL's online Bus Safety Data for Q4 2017 tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publ… doesn't show incident in question, so public doesn't know which Bus Company or Route was involved...and press photo in @SurreyComet doesn't show it either.

On Friday, I wrote TfL Dir Bus Operations Claire Mann & asked "which Bus Operator involved in this Zebra Crossing Collision?" but no response. Mann same TfL Bus Boss who didn't know how Saba Mirza-hit in Zebra Crossing by TfL Bus on 25Nov16-was either saferoxfordstreet.blogspot.com/2018/08/london…

3.the London #UpperTribunal could give me permission to appeal and we asked for it.Usually,the #UpperTribunal deals w/requests to appeal withing 10 weeks. Twenty weeks have passed: no feedback from the #UpperTribunal yet

National politics correspondent for Newsweek, Nina Burleigh, with a fun find on a TV above the bar at the Trump Hotel DC bit.ly/2E37QRR

Two errors in the 2nd graf of Breitbart's Trump Hotel DC article:
-holdings aren't out of @realDonaldTrump's hands: trust isn't blind & he can profit from it
-Trump Org told Congress it was estimating foreign receipts—not auto donating in fullbit.ly/2CpL7z2